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If you ever watched Green Wing, did you think “Gee, this show is great, but it’d be better if the characters were less likable, more one-dimensional, and also if it were set at a university”? I didn’t, but clearly someone did, and someone then commissioned Campus. It’s from the same production team behind the aforementioned Green Wing, as well as late-90s sketch comedy Smack the Pony. It’s not entirely bad, it’s certainly watchable, and it does have its redeeming moments, but the things that made Green Wing so hilarious are broadly absent.
As I’ve already said, it’s virtually impossible to look at the show and not make comparisons to Green Wing. Clear parallels can be drawn between characters in the two shows. Where Green Wing had Guy Secretan in its “womanising rogue” roll, Campus casts English Professor Matt Beer in pretty much exactly the same character. The object of his affections is Caroline Todd/Imogen Moffat, but instead she falls for his co-worker who goes by the nickname of Mac/Flatpack. Pretty much every character in Campus has a Green Wing parallel (or parallels), and most of these seem to be Green Wing’s eccentric liaisons officer Sue White, but maybe I am being too harsh on the show. These are archetypes we’re talking about (the womanising rogue who finds the one woman he can’t tame and so becomes the more enamoured with her, the highly strung lady who needs to be taught to calm down). This doesn’t change the fact, however, that the characters aren’t particularly likable. In Green Wing we can sympathise with Caroline and support her resisting Guy’s advances; in Campus I find Matt far more likable than Imogen.
Of course, one of the “largest” characters in the show is the leader of Kirke University, Vice-Chancellor Jonty de Wolfe, essentially what would happen if the aforementioned Sue White were to gain a position of high power, then turned up the racism and had most of the show focus on her. Despite this, I seem to be in a minority when I say I actually rather enjoy Wolfe’s character, simply for the absurdity of his actions, such as threatening to shrink his accountant, attempting to get a student to commit suicide, and using a megaphone to chat up attractive women from his balcony overlooking the university’s central plaza. Despite this, the character is racist, misogynist and downright cruel, causing many viewers to take offence. Maybe I just have a different sense of humour. Regardless, he does bring a certain spark to the show, however unoriginal/offensive that spark may be.
One would think that Campus would be a show set in a university would be of more interest to students than anyone else, but I wouldn’t say this was the case; the show is accessible to anyone, focusing on staff more than it does students (in much the same way you don’t need a medical degree to watch Green Wing or be ordained in order to enjoy Father Ted). It’s certainly not as good as Green Wing, or indeed many other comedy shows, but it’s still not that bad, and as I said earlier, is enjoyable enough in its own right. It’s not something I tune in for religiously on a Tuesday night, I catch it on 4oD when I’m bored. Perhaps this is the best way to enjoy comedy which “alright”.
See Campus on Tuesdays at 10pm on Channel 4, or catch up on 4OD.
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